Sean Payton Learns The Cold, Hard Truth

Woke up feelin’ spicy so let’s have some fun and stir the gumbo. The Saints deserve just as much blame for losing the NFCCG as the refs.

All during the SB my twitter feed was inundated with smug Saints fans boasting how the Saints were the true winners of the NFCCG (no) and they would have put on a better performance than the Rams (probably). Saints fans turned out in droves to have a protest party in Atlanta for the game. They sued the NFL. The state senator argued about it in congress. The TV ratings in New Orleans for the game was incredibly low. Saints fans were and still are making it very known that they are not happy about the loss. Can’t really blame them for that. That was a tough loss. Emotions are always hyper-reactionary to an absurd degree for playoff heartbreak. I mean last year it got so bad by Vikings fans that I had to defend Eagles fans. Gross. My point is I get why they are mad. I get it. I’d be mad too. I also wish the Saints had reached the Super Bowl; I would have enjoyed that match-up more.

What I don’t like is that many Saints fans seem to be running with the narrative that the missed call lost the game. That missed call was everything. If not for that call, the Saints are literally in the Super Bowl. Nope. I do not want this to become accepted as truth because it’s bullshit. The Saints should have won that game anyway but choked. Let’s lay down some mother fuck’n facts.

The play happens at 1:45 in the 4th at roughly the 6 yard line. The Rams have 1 timeout left. If the call is made, the Saints have first and goal from the 6 yard line. The Rams are only able to stop the clock once. This is, undoubtedly, an extremely favorable situation for the Saints. If this occurs, the probability of a Saints victory is very, very high. It is however, not guaranteed.

Any number of things could happen in that 1:45. The Saints bleed the clock and kick a field goal with little time left. They score a TD with little time left. They throw a bad INT and it goes to overtime. They throw a pick 6 or a pick that reaches field goal range for the Rams to win. They fumble. They shank the field goal. They score too fast and the Rams come back anyway. Granted, all of these outcomes are unlikely, but Saints fans of all people should know that it only takes one play to go wrong and lose everything! Seriously, Saints fans should be the last fanbase on the planet to know to take this shit for granted. If the call is made the Saints have a very good chance of winning. But it’s not guaranteed.

But more important here is the thing Saints fans don’t seem to want to admit. After the call, they still had an extremely good chance to win. And they failed miserably. In fact, if that call controversy doesn’t happen and dominate the narrative of the game, this might be one of the worst chokes in NFCCG history.

The Saints, after the call, took the lead with 1:40 left. I would like to take this moment to let you know you should re-read that sentence. Soak it in. They took a 3-point lead with under 2 minutes to go. It might not be as good a chance to win, but that’s a pretty good position to be in. All the Saints have to do at that point is stop the Rams for one drive. The Rams have 1 timeout. The clock is not in their favor. The game so far has been largely defensive. The Saints busted out a quick 14 point lead, which they slowly relinquished over the course of the game to where they are tied at 20 before the no-call.

By the way, yeah. The Saints had this game completely under control and just let the Rams worm their way back in. If this team is so special and the Rams are such frauds, why did that happen? One bad call doesn’t explain that. Explain that, Saints.

So the Saints have to hold the Rams out of field goal range at minimum for 1:40. The Rams were within easy field goal range with 19 seconds left. *makes choking noise*

The Rams were also, by the way, affected by a bad no-call on a facemask on the previous drive, which according to McVay made it tougher to go for a TD and the win. This may not have been as bad as the missed PI, but it also affected the Saints chances in a positive way. Honestly while the Saints clearly got the worst of the ref failure that day, it was bad all around for both teams and had an unknown true impact. I think Sean Payton is justified in how he reacted to that call though.

So the Saints had to hold the Rams for one drive and they blew it. But hey, the game isn’t over. We’re going into overtime! There is still a chance to pull this off. Hey, it’s at home! That’s an advantage. Hey, they won the coin toss and elect to get the ball first! That’s a positive. This is still leaning in the Saints favor!

The offensive line failed, Brees got hit, and the now dead duck got picked off. *Choking noises get louder*

Well, now the Saints have to hold the Rams back. Still possible. Do they? Kinda. The Rams don’t get far and take a chance on a stupid long field goal instead of playing safe and punting (for the record that decision surprised me, I thought the Rams should punt because a missed FG there gave the Saints great position). The 57 yard kick, completing one of the best comebacks in Rams history, goes through. Nobody will talk about that. Nobody will give that 57 yard kick the honor it deserves, and nobody will give the Rams the credit they deserve for their gutsiest performance all season long. Especially now since they ate shit two weeks later.

The missed call is the defining moment of the game, for better or worse. If a Saints fan ever tells you the Rams didn’t belong in the Super Bowl, tell them that they shouldn’t have let the fuckers in. Some might say the missed call got into the Saints heads and damaged morale. Well, frankly that’s on the coaching and the players for not being able to deal with it. Good teams don’t let one call ruin them. They bounce back.

TL:DR – The call affected the outcome of the game. But it did not decide the game. Never forget the Saints also choked.

One last thing, to all the smug Vikings fans reveling in the Saints getting screwed as some sort of “justice” for Bountygate. Bountygate didn’t make Brett Favre throw across his body straight into Tracy Porter’s hands. You choked too.

You had every advantage imaginable going into the playoffs. At no point in the post season did you actually look a fraction of your regular season selves. You were down in almost every offensive and defensive category. The very definition of choking. And Payton knew it. Its why he pulled the stunt with the Lombardi trophy and $250k cash.

You scraped past an Eagles side, at home, that was a shadow of last seasons Superbowl winning team and proceeded to strut about like a Peacock with its plumage on show. And when you could have been building good relations with the press and earning brownie points with neutral fans, your players were out there trash talking when they clearly could not back it up.

Real talk: The Saints would have gotten dumpstered in the Super Bowl. Brees has struggled against top shelf defenses as much as Goff has this year, and the only reason the Super Bowl was even remotely close was because of Wade Phillips. New Orleans does not have Wade Phillips. If I were to bet, I’d expect to see Edelman have a day that’s actually worth a Super Bowl MVP before I expect the Saints to win that game.

Ehh, I actually really like the current rules for overtime, even as a slut for defense. Getting a field goal requires significantly less effort out of the offense; during regulation holding an offense to a field goal is considered getting a stop. The way the rules are now there’s legitimate reason to consider putting your defense out there first because if you think your defense is significantly better than their offense then your offense will have a WAY easier time of winning the game.

On the other hand, it’s a very poor way of analyzing history, and it ignores psychology.

Sure, it’d be great if everyone met adversity with resilience. But that’s a lot easier said than done when you’re at the end of a 3-hour emotional, hard work-out with your life’s work on the line. And that’s not a moral failing– it’s involuntary, and it can’t be trained or taught. When you have victory, and a 3rd-party intervenes and takes it away (and yes, for the purposes of their psychology and in whatever-the-FG-success-rate-is-from-that-range, it was a victory– there would have been 3 straight kneel-down and then a kick, so that INT talk, and the fumble talk, can go right out the window).

You’re right– the Saints COULD have stopped the Rams. And probably should have.

But many times, when we look at history, we can find many influential effects, but we also make the argument for the *deciding* event. We contextualize it with all that other stuff, we use those other events and actors to explain how it got to that point, but we try to make the case for a single point that *most* decided the outcome of the story. And, the closer an event is to the final outcome of the story, the more weight it gets– it’s got the weight of events leading up to it, and the opportunity for other events to correct it go away.

Sure, we see plenty of times in NFL history where teams come back from that kind of bad call and win it. And you’re right, that the accumulation of Saints plays matter more than that one call. But more than any of the Saints plays, that bad call changed the direction of the game. It was a clear debarkation point.

And, importantly, the NFL needs narrative to remain interesting. Much of why I hate Goodell is that he has done an extremely poor job of fostering that, or of putting the NFL in the white light. The negative festers, and it becomes harder and harder to root for anyone. We want a turn, we want a climax. That’s why come backs are more enjoyable the blowouts, or why a close game with a failed come-back draws so much emotional attention. It’s that last, failed play that matters for the story– not the however-many missed plays before it.

tl;dr: Technically, the game is the result of all the plays in the game. Emotionally, the game is the result of the narrative turn that leads to the climax. And from a fans perspective, rather than an analyst’s (not one person can’t be both at once), the emotional matters more than the technical.

I’m not a saints fan. I am a skins fan through and through, and was happy to see our former coach in McVay succeed with LA.

That said, as a football fan, I believe the saints are the true winners of that NFCCG. It’s hard to come back and play well when you know you should’ve won the game already. It’s a total momentum killer and is bloody stupid. That call was extremely bad at best and the result of bribery at worst.

Bad calls happen a lot. They ruin momentum a lot. They happen at pivotal moments sometimes. The best teams deal with it. They don’t let it get them down, or they use it to rally. I doubt the Patriots fall victim the same way the Saints did. The Rams got through bad calls too.

The Saints had their chance and they missed it. They had plenty of chances to put the game away before that point. They had the chance to put the game away after that point. The didn’t. That’s on them, even if the call isn’t.

Have to disagree with this. If they get the first down they run it once to center Rams take their last timeout they kneel down twice snap the ball to kick with about 15 seconds left if that. The game then ends after a kick out of the endzone and a hail mary attempt with Goff’s arm that wouldn’t even reach the endzone.

No. The Saints got screwed. I take it as a given that the FG made at 1:40 would’ve been made, so the shanked kick doesn’t fly. No pick 6 or INT since they would not have passed the ball. Fumble? If they decided to run the ball in an attempt for a TD instead of kneeling three times, maybe, but even then very slim chance. And yes, the Rams still would’ve gotten the ball back. With around 20 seconds remaining (if any) and no time outs. Again slim chance as Rams would’ve needed a miracle. They do happen, but time would be heavily against them (as opposed to the 1:40 plus a time out which was in the Rams favor, not against it). There’s a big difference between Rams winning by luck and having it handed to them on a silver platter (which is what happened).

That all being said, you still have the point of Saints blowing a 14 (13, whatever, it was still 2 TDs) point lead. Where it shouldn’t have come down to a bad call in the first place. If any argument of choke should apply, it would be there and only there. Any argument of choke after the bad call is irrelevant as everything that happened after wouldn’t have existed.

You are exactly the type of person this comic is targeted at so thanks for not having reading comprehension

“There’s a big difference between Rams winning by luck and having it handed to them on a silver platter (which is what happened).”

This is not what happened. This is my entire point. The missed call did NOT hand the Rams the win on a silver platter. All it did was give them a better chance then if the call is made. The Rams still had to drive the field and force overtime, and then defend Brees, and score again to win. That’s not having a win handed to you on a silver platter. The Rams got a chance they shouldn’t have had, and they took it. The Saints had a great chance taken away but still had a better chance to win, and they flopped. According to those win probability charts, even after the missed call and the made field goal the Saints still had an 80% win probability. 80%. That’s not handing the game to the Rams on a silver platter.

“I take it as a given that the FG made at 1:40 would’ve been made, so the shanked kick doesn’t fly. No pick 6 or INT since they would not have passed the ball. ”

I specifically pointed out how any of these possibilities are unlikely and how the Saints chances are very high if the call is made. My point was that just because all of these things are extremely unlikely doesn’t mean they can’t happen, and I then posted 3 examples where one crazy play did happen, specifically to the Saints.

I think the Saints got screwed. I think they win the game if the call is made. But me thinking it would happen doesn’t mean it’s what would have actually happened. What actually happened was a terrible call giving the Rams a little more life than they had before, and the Saints failed to step up and make the play not matter in the end, which they had at least two major chances to do.

As a Saints fan, I sense a lot of hostility here. My opinion is the Saints should’ve won the game. If Payton doesn’t get cute with playcalling, that call would be a nothing more than a footnote. The Refs screwed UP. We screwed US. I’ve repeatedly argued that there is nothing guaranteed if that call is made. I’m not making excuses. We didn’t play well enough to win. Otherwise we would have. If that call gets made, the game completely changes in my opinion. I personally see a last second TD by the Rams with the Saints blowing coverage…the sequel. BC lolsaints

Dave you are right, but the call was our Bill Buckner, Bartman moment. You could feel the inevitable after that call. Sean Payton looked like he had lost right then and their and the crowd never let it go.

I get the message of this article, but no, the Saints didn’t choke. Nor did the Rams, really. The Refs dictated a lot of that game.

The missed PI call on Michael Thomas in the first half, the missed facemask call on Goff, the missed PI/targeting call that everybody knows about, and the missed facemask on Brees/PI call on Michael Thomas during that Interception in OT. (Before someone blows up on that Int, go re-watch it. He obviously pushes off of Michael Thomas)

There’s others I’m missing as well, but those were the most crucial.

I feel for the Saints. This isn’t like their previous years. This game was literally decided by the Refs. The previous years, the Saints had blown plays which costed them the game (Minnesota Miracle, the Grab, etc). Those games the Saints choked.

This game? Not so much.

Also to the person who said the Saints would’ve been blown out by the Patriots, just no. It would have been a much more entertaining game than watching McVay just sit on his hands and not adapt his gameplan to the soft zone D that the Patriots were putting up.

Remember, Payton is a Top 5 coach in the league. He’s not new to this. He does make mistakes, especially with the play calling on the Saints final drive before OT, but he’s fully capable with adapting his playcalling. Plus Brees is 3-1 against Brady last I checked. (2 wins as a Charger, 1-1 as a Saint)

It’s a shame too. Imagine the Saints beating the Patriots in Atlanta. The amount of butthurt would’ve been great to witness. Not only would the Saints have earned their 2nd ring on their rival’s turf, Brees would’ve beaten Brady in the most watched game – which would have a lot of people arguing back and forth who’s the GOAT.

Brees is a great guy, great player, and he keeps getting the shaft. Always losing out on MVPs when he shouldn’t and he’s missed… what, 4 opportunities at the Superbowl? Blown defensive calls or the Refs, just keeping him out despite how hard he carries his team.

Every single error you mention isn’t a bad call. It’s a non-call. That’s not the refs “dictating” the game. Dictating the game would be making calls, not letting them pass by unchecked. If the refs fucked up that game, it was by not dictating enough and letting too much slip by.

If you want to make the argument that not calling things is dictating a game, then every single game in existence has been decided by the refs and nothing counts. You can be a nitpicky bastard and point out technical penalties on every play if you really want. It’s a refs job to pick out the worst examples, the obvious flags, to prevent things from getting out of hand and keep it fair. These refs did the exact opposite of what you claim they did – they didn’t do enough. That inaction eventually led to an egregious missed call that impacted the result.

So if a ref was to let Donald stand in the backfield next to Brees every snap and sack him with no call it wouldn’t be the refs deciding the game? There are two no calls that directly prevented the Rams from losing. The no call on rtp/dpi in overtime and the no call on hit that was fined 26k by the nfl. You seema bit biased in this case the refs absolutely decided this game. It’s very hard to continue playing at your best level when you know you should have already won.

As egregious as that no-call was, it will never distract anyone from the fact that the Saints DID choke this game. They had chances before and after the play and didn’t cash in.

Just because Brees is 3-2 regular season vs Brady doesn’t mean he’d crush him in the Super Bowl. You know the Pats would have won regardless. No one would ever or has ever thought Brees is better than Brady too, don’t know where you got that from.

And do you actually think Brees has carried the Saints in recent years with all the talent around him? And do you think he deserved MVP this year? If you do, you’re just a giant homer.

The storefront in the opening panel reminds me of the Injury Reserve bar and made me realize it seemed we had fewer of those comics this year than in years past. I hope next year we have more. (Not more injuries! Just more Injury Reserve jokes.)

Yeah there’s a ton of what if’s that could’ve affected the outcome and I think that can be said of any game. It’s been a month and it’s still sore for us Saints fans to talk about. But in the end, we have a Super Bowl ring, and Atlanta doesn’t. And I’m ok with that.